Apps for expenses, health tracking, and network diagnostics

Scott Lowe's new app roundup features Pocket Mileage Lite, ProOnGo Expense, healthycloud, and Network Pro. Find out why he thinks all four mobile apps are useful.

Pocket Mileage Lite (iPhone and iPad)

If you have to keep detailed logs of your mileage for reimbursement or tax reasons, you might keep paper logs or Excel-based documents for this purpose. There are a number of mobile apps that can help with this task as well. One such app is Pocket Mileage Lite, which is free and quite full-featured. It supports units of measure from around the world, including various currencies. In addition, if you make the same trips over and over, you can save them as frequent trips and easily add them to your log without re-typing the details. In Figure A, you can see a list of the trips that have been added to your log.
Figure A

A list of the trips that have been saved in the utility.

Each trip might be for a different purpose, too. With Pocket Mileage Lite, you can classify trips based on type: business, charity, medical, personal, or other.

When you add mileage to the app, you are asked to provide the start and end mileage figures, which helps when it comes to proving your mileage claims. After you add several trips, you should use the app's Calendar view to see an at-a-glance look at where you've been and for what purposes (Figure B).
Figure B

Calendar view

To make things a bit more complete, you might add the expenses that you incur during a trip (Figure C).
Figure C

Add the details of your trip, including expenses.

Figure D shows you what the Pocket Mileage Lite app looks like on the iPad.
Figure D

The iPad version of the Pocket Mileage Lite app.

ProOnGo Expense (Android)

One mileage tracker app that is available for Android is ProOnGo Expense, which was updated most recently on April 21, 2011. ProOnGo Expense includes some really cool features, including mileage tracking and expense tracking. ProOnGo Expense also allows you to sync your credit card account with the app so that your business purchases are imported into the app, too. The best part is ProOnGo Expense is a free app.

In Figure E, you see a list of trips and expenses that have been added into ProOnGo Expense.
Figure E

A list of trips and expenses

As you add new entries to your log, you can choose the kind of entry you'd like to make (Figure F).
Figure F

Decide what kind of entry to add to your log.

In my opinion, one of the app's coolest features is that you can scan your receipts directly into the app (Figure G).
Figure G

You can even scan copies of receipts.

healthycloud (iPhone and iPad)

I need to lose weight, but it's really tough. I try to be careful about what I eat, but I tend to be a stress eater, and stress is a normal part of my daily routine. So, by the end of the day, I sometimes realize that I've downed too many crackers and too many Cherry Cokes. However, when I have something with me all the time that reminds me of what I'm doing, it's a bit easier to keep track of what I'm consuming. That's where apps such as healthycloud come in.

healthycloud is a $3.99 app that tracks it all -- nutrition/calorie intake, blood pressure, weight and body metrics, blood sugar, water intake, cholesterol results, blood lab results, body temperature, and more. You may not want to track all of this information, so you can pick and choose what to track. Figure H shows you some of the information you can track with healthycloud.
Figure H

healthycloud tracks a lot of information.

As you track items, you can see historical trends in the app, too (Figure I).
Figure I

Historical trends can be especially useful for some metrics, such as blood sugar.

A nutrition tracker (Figure J) helps me be more aware of what I'm eating and drinking. When everything is added up, sometimes it's amazing how many calories I've shoveled in throughout the course of a day.
Figure J

healthycloud's database includes more than 100,000 food items.

Keep your iPhone handy and as you snack throughout the day or grab lunch, track your intake in healthycloud. The journey to better health starts with an understanding for where you are. Now I just need to take my own advice.

Network Pro (iPhone and iPad)

If you're a net admin who lugs a laptop everywhere in case you need to do some basic troubleshooting, you'll want to check out the Network Pro app, which costs $4.99.

The network analysis and diagnostic tool includes the following capabilities:

LAN Scan for complete scanning and diagnostics of all devices connected to a Local Area Network.

Trace Route for determining the route path and measuring the transit times across an IP network.

Port Scan for determining what services are listening on a device.

Wake On LAN for remotely waking sleeping devices.

Subnet Calculator for providing the information needed to make decisions regarding your subnetting.

I don't believe Network Pro will replace your laptop; after all, network folks routinely connect to switches with serial cables and do other things that would be pretty difficult from an app. However, for your basic troubleshooting needs, such as identifying what ports are open on a server, scanning the network for new devices, and using a subnet calculator, this free app is a compelling tool.

In Figure K, you'll see the functions that can be performed by the tool.
Figure K

Network Pro performs a number of functions.

In Figure L, you'll see a screenshot of the port scan functionality.
Figure L

Perform a port scan from anywhere with the Network Pro app.

What are your new favorite apps?

Tell us about the apps you've discovered this month that you find truly useful.

About Scott Lowe

Since 1994, Scott Lowe has been providing technology solutions to a variety of organizations. After spending 10 years in multiple CIO roles, Scott is now an independent consultant, blogger, author, owner of The 1610 Group, and a Senior IT Executive w...

Full Bio

Since 1994, Scott Lowe has been providing technology solutions to a variety of organizations. After spending 10 years in multiple CIO roles, Scott is now an independent consultant, blogger, author, owner of The 1610 Group, and a Senior IT Executive with CampusWorks, Inc. Scott is available for consulting, writing, and speaking engagements and can be reached at slowe@email.com.

For a while now, I've been using an app called LifeTopix (http://www.lightarrow.com/lifetopix) that lets me track all of the info in my life, including my health and exercise metrics. The health piece has built-in graph capabilities, and integrate automatically with the other areas like my tasks, projects, and shopping lists. It's meant a big improvement in my health.

Wallace,
Thank you for your comment. I updated the post with this information. When this post was published, the app was listed as free for a limited time. It seems the free offer has expired.
Best Regards,
Mary Weilage